Youku Upgrades Fingerprinting System for Tougher Copyright Protection Measures

BEIJING, March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Youku.com Inc. (NYSE: YOKU), China's leading Internet television company, announced today that it has begun offering copyright holders increased protection against copyright infringement through upgrades to its video fingerprinting system—the biggest upgrade since Youku launched its own copyright identification management platform, the first to be developed by a Chinese internet company, in January 2010.

The update to Youku's copyright identification management platform comes on the heels of the company's agreement with major Hollywood studios regarding content protection. In addition to Youku's proprietary copyright screening system, now videos uploaded to Youku will be simultaneously checked against the VideoDNA Database (VDDB) developed by Vobile, a leading international provider of fingerprinting technology. The new platform provides unrivalled accuracy, and can generate fingerprint information for videos in a matter of minutes and compare them to existing fingerprints within less than a second.

"Youku has acquired content rights at an unprecedented rate over the past year," said Youku Chairman and CEO Victor Koo, "and we intend to continue working with media content providers to make sure that we offer the richest range of licensed video content. We are serious about maintaining good relationships with our partners, and to that end we will continue to offer rights-protection measures that equal or surpass industry standards."

As a founding member of the China Network Copyright Committee, Youku has led the way for Chinese companies in protecting content creators' rights online. The company now continues its tradition of respect for copyright by partnering with Vobile, whose technology can identify copyrighted content even in cases where uploaders have deliberately tampered with the video or audio to reduce identifiability, thus offering a strong additional layer of protection for studios and rights holders.

"Vobile worked with Youku to integrate its technology into the site's existing framework," said Youku CTO Leo Jian Yao. "The seamless integration between our systems means that Youku can check uploaded content against our own databases in parallel with Vobile's. We will be updating our fingerprint databases every day through our partnership with Vobile, ensuring that our systems are up to date at all times. Respect for intellectual property rights is every bit as important to us as it is to our content partners, and we will continue to develop and strengthen our copyright protection measures in the future."

"Vobile has provided its industry-leading VDNA content identification and management services to partners around the world," said Vobile founder and CEO Yangbin Wang. "We're excited to work with Youku in close partnership and help Youku ensure that it provides licensed, high-quality TV and film content to the world's largest Internet market."

About Youku

Youku.com Inc. is China's leading Internet television company. Our Internet television platform enables users to search, view and share high-quality video content quickly and easily across multiple devices. Youku, which stands for "what's best and what's cool" in Chinese, is the most recognized online video brand in China. Youku's American depositary shares, each representing 18 of our Class A ordinary shares, are traded on NYSE under the symbol "YOKU."

About Vobile

Vobile® is the leading provider of video content identification and management services. Its core VDNA® technology enables fully automated identification, tracking and management of any video and audio content with high performance, accuracy and scalability. Vobile operates the VDNA Database (VDDB®), which is the most comprehensive database of authorized video fingerprints, metadata and business rules from major movie studios, television networks and record labels. Founded in 2005, the company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with additional offices in China, Japan and Singapore. For more information, please visit http://www.vobileinc.com.

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This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements.  Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Youku's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Among other things, quotations from management in this announcement contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward- looking statements. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the risks included in our registration statement on Form F-1, as amended, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Youku undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

SOURCE Youku.com Inc.